From the author's description of the One Item Store:
> Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with the final product, I think its actually really cool. But building it.. it was just a bit boring. There were lots of bugs, and I started to get a bit burnt out thinking about the endless list of things required for a good online store builder.
This is a fascinating observation. In a couple of weeks he's both built something from scratch and figured out that the work of doing it wasn't enjoyable. It takes some people years to get to that point.
To figure out what you want to do, you often have to sift through a lot of fool's gold - junk that looks appealing as an idea but isn't appealing as a part of your life. The tiny projects idea offers a way to accelerate that process.
But the key here is to finish. To have an end point in mind and then reach it. 20% completion may get you 80% of the functionality. But by god, getting that last 20% could be the hardest, grinding work you will ever do. It's going to be very difficult to finish unless it's aligned in some fundamental way with your life.
There are a dozen articles a month on HN from founders or coders with websites that all say “know your customer before you write a line of code” or “find customers ready to write a check” before you start. “Sift through fool’s gold” - that’s what that advice is helping you avoid, time wasted coding a website that has no business validation. Adding features no one wants.
If the author pushed One Item Store and said “I’m going to market it cause it’s cool now, I’ll add features when people ask for them” then he might enjoy it more and be surprised to find people who will use it and pay for it as is.
My guess is that he had to deal with payment APIs (like Stripe) and it's really not fun to integrate with external APIs that take a lot of doc reading and understanding of a different field.
With all my love to Mr. Levels[1], I'm personally glad the author decided to approach this as their little "Tiny projects" rather than "Follow me as I build six startups in six months". I feel it nicely sets expectations to what I can get out of checking out each project and thinking "well, it's just a tiny project after all, why can't I have made something like this ever month too?". The 12 startups idea was also inspiring to me but I disliked how the term so frequently leads people to (IMO) somewhat pointless analysis of "Is this even a real startup?" around each individual project.
Don't pay attention to the negative nellies. Even these tiny "worthless" projects end up having value because they build a tool chest of skills and code snippets that make each subsequent project quicker and more sophisticated. Eventually you'll Frankenstein pieces of a dozen of these together into something big.
There is an old story about pottery students. A school split a pottery class into two groups. They instructed the first group to focus on making a few exceptional pieces. They judged the second group based on the number of pieces they created measured by weight. The result was that the best pieces came from the second group; those that focused on quantity.
There is value in the experience gained when focusing on quantity instead of quality. Early in ones career it seems wise to spend some time on increasing quantity.
Agreed. James Clear demonstrates this with a similar story. About a real professor’s photography class. The quantity students got a lot better at photography, than the quality group.
This isn't quite accurate. In that anecdote, those focused on quality did nothing but sit around and theorize. Had they spent their time evaluating their skills and improving them with an actual focus on quality, they would've no doubt had the better result.
Build to learn. I love it. One thing I think many engineers and founders discover is they like creating more than they like running a business. A lot of places will look down on that mentality, but you don’t have to be a CEO. You can just be a person who likes to tinker and makes some money on the side.
I remember the origin of this idea. Glad to see him plodding along. I wish I had the stamina. Although I've done 3 things in 6 months that are finished and shipped, I really dislike the "putting myself out there" part. I just quietly move onto the next idea.
Job well done. If anything, more people should build their tiny projects in public and document their journey like you did. Dribbble used to be this place for designers, where a community came together to show work in progress and get feedback from one an other. (then it turned into a marketing platform). There isn't really something like that for tiny software projects. If there was, I would be checking in on a daily basis.
I love this, and I believe this is what so many more programmers ought to be doing. There's nothing like actually owning a product end-to-end to teach you about which engineering principles actually matter and when.
That is going to be my 2021. Definitely not a launch per week, but aiming to launch a new project every 2 months. I suspect some will even generate something like $1.60!
I'm jealous of what Ben is doing. That's the correct mentality when you're a young, full stack developer, full of energy, with nice ideas and with plenty of time to "play" and showcase your skills. Wondering if he's open to new tiny project ideas ;-)
P.S. He is available for hire over at https://benstokes.dev
All of these projects (even the failures and the flameouts) are 100% fantastic. Some I look at and think "That looks like shit!" Some I look at and think "I don't see the point." Some I look at and think "Wish I'd thought of that." But every single one of them, the shit ones, the pointless ones, the really neat ones, they all have value. Massive learning opportunities, the fact you published something, the fact you experimented. I cannot commend you enough for what you have achieved.
I get involved in "weekend projects" (sometimes they go a little longer than a weekend), and I find that without the pressure to deliver something useful it lets me explore whimsical ideas and learning opportunities I don't get in my day job.
Really cool. Most people wouldnt post if they were 6 for 26 but honestly this is so insightful. I was planning on doing something similar with having 4 weeks to finish 4 upcoming projects. I knew they would probably take longer than the time allotted. This is helpful feedback.
That's really cool and inspiring. I began the year with a similar idea of creating small projects weekly, although my goals were less ambitious. In the beginning of it I already felt in the "insane schedule" hole and realized that it wouldn't work, so I changed plans to at least creating a blog post each week. With that, I could create a better habit and manage to (almost) handle it.
This approach didn't block me from creating small programs/game clones in this period, which I'm keeping in my blog[0] as well, but seeing projects like yours motivates to push harder for bigger projects.
I would be just to afraid for certain ideas like the shop thing.
One credit card fraud going through my system and i might in a big dept if i did this under a company format which doesn't protect me from personal liability.
While i like the idea very much of getting exercise in this way, i'm wondering what the main motivation is?
I would like to earn money through my own company but only with my product i like and find 'worthy'. Trying out small concepts over and over again, might not bring any fruit in finding the thing you are passionate about and then the question arrives if it wouldn't be much more beneficial to optimize your own career instead.
If you're using a reputable payment processor (like Stripe), they should be handling fraud detection and remediation for you. The real thing to watch out for is using your marketplace to sell illegal things. It was even mentioned that there were people for sale... I'm guessing that was done as a joke but it also happens for real.
I've considered many ideas like that One Item Shop and turned away from them because I wasn't sure how to keep people from listing and selling things that will get me sued out of business or thrown in jail. And at £1.63 in revenue, I'm not hiring a lawyer.
> I'm anxious for the month I can't find any new social platforms.
I doubt that'll be an issue for some time, there are so many startups out there either trying to be the next big one or specifically to address the needs of a niche set of users.
Once the project hits a certain level of public awareness new social projects will be contacting the author to ask to be included, there will be no "looking for them" involved (though perhaps some due diligence checking to make sure the platform isn't in some way a project they'd rather not be associated with).
imo I don't agree with the "buy domain name right away" since it may cause you to lose motivation/drive. Having the thought "build it first then when it's done buy a domain" is my thought. As I often buy domains and end up not using them/not finishing the project... still I can see the issue of securing a nice domain name.
I think that would be great to make some project that has returns even a seemingly low sum of $200/mo. That's like a fifth of what I need to live a month, not bad.
Facebook ads for market interest check is an interesting thought albeit maybe expenisve.
edit: the other thing stories like these(pertaining to EarlyName) seem to gloss over is the legal aspect. It is easy to throw up a payment form but who is it paid to and say you're sued for whatever reason... does the few hundred a month justify an LLC sort of thing. That's the part that sucks/part of a business I guess. Some options like fastpring I think. Maybe general ToS/Privacy is enough
It is funny it's like a "solve that problem when you actually have it" sort of scenario. But I do wonder about creating some general LLC that can be an umbrella to random micro saas projects.
I find it best to deploy something as soon as I buy the domain. I try to setup the CI/CD pipeline from day 1 with the framework of my choice and an ugly landing page. That first deploy is a fairly easy early win. And then I’m motivated to keep iterating.
Not sure if I read it (or if I was just thinking it), but if I were him I'd also use Earlyname as a sort of PH type of service. Social (media) websites want to be promoted and get users. Having an influx of early users via Earlyname would help with that. So on the longer term, I'd focus on framing the message to new companies as well. It also means he wouldn't need to search all the time for new social (media) sites.
One Item Store actually solves a real problem that a lot of people have.
I know nothing about web development, and spent days getting a "one item store" WooCommerce/Wordpress site set up a couple of years back.
The performance is woeful and I've been hacked multiple times. Your sites are so snappy and I'm assuming secure-by-default as they're static.
On the other hand, though, your sites look more like Craigslist ads than actual eCommerce sites. The font choice is ugly, and the lack of things like logos, contact/about pages don't exactly fill the user with trust.
If you polished it up a bit, I think you could have a real winner on your hands.
Wow, OneItemStore is awesome. Any chance there's a way to peak at the source? I'm just starting to dip my toes in front-end anything and simple projects like OneItemStore still seem quite daunting.
[+] [-] aazaa|5 years ago|reply
> Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with the final product, I think its actually really cool. But building it.. it was just a bit boring. There were lots of bugs, and I started to get a bit burnt out thinking about the endless list of things required for a good online store builder.
https://tinyprojects.dev/projects/one_item_store
This is a fascinating observation. In a couple of weeks he's both built something from scratch and figured out that the work of doing it wasn't enjoyable. It takes some people years to get to that point.
To figure out what you want to do, you often have to sift through a lot of fool's gold - junk that looks appealing as an idea but isn't appealing as a part of your life. The tiny projects idea offers a way to accelerate that process.
But the key here is to finish. To have an end point in mind and then reach it. 20% completion may get you 80% of the functionality. But by god, getting that last 20% could be the hardest, grinding work you will ever do. It's going to be very difficult to finish unless it's aligned in some fundamental way with your life.
[+] [-] x87678r|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bluedevil2k|5 years ago|reply
If the author pushed One Item Store and said “I’m going to market it cause it’s cool now, I’ll add features when people ask for them” then he might enjoy it more and be surprised to find people who will use it and pay for it as is.
[+] [-] GoldenMonkey|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gtrhtrhtrhtr|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] QuelqueChose|5 years ago|reply
[1]https://levels.io/12-startups-12-months/
[+] [-] picodguyo|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hnrodey|5 years ago|reply
Yet even today I continue to refer back to these old projects because I need to use again something I've built before.
[+] [-] corobo|5 years ago|reply
Not everything needs to be a hustle. Worth doesn't need to be in money terms
[+] [-] penguin_booze|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kyawzazaw|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fakedang|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] reggieband|5 years ago|reply
There is value in the experience gained when focusing on quantity instead of quality. Early in ones career it seems wise to spend some time on increasing quantity.
[+] [-] GoldenMonkey|5 years ago|reply
https://jamesclear.com/repetitions
[+] [-] sombremesa|5 years ago|reply
This isn't quite accurate. In that anecdote, those focused on quality did nothing but sit around and theorize. Had they spent their time evaluating their skills and improving them with an actual focus on quality, they would've no doubt had the better result.
[+] [-] jhunter1016|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] keyle|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] krm01|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kyawzazaw|5 years ago|reply
[0] https://devgarden.macalester.edu
[+] [-] Jaruzel|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oli-g|5 years ago|reply
IndieHackers seems close enough to me
[+] [-] yakshaving_jgt|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] flixic|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mixcocam|5 years ago|reply
https://oneitem.store/pomo
Couldn't find the repo so added a feature request here: https://twitter.com/mixcocam/status/1329201542411538441?s=20
[+] [-] mixcocam|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] NKosmatos|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] justinlloyd|5 years ago|reply
I get involved in "weekend projects" (sometimes they go a little longer than a weekend), and I find that without the pressure to deliver something useful it lets me explore whimsical ideas and learning opportunities I don't get in my day job.
[+] [-] AlwaysRock|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cgreinhold|5 years ago|reply
This approach didn't block me from creating small programs/game clones in this period, which I'm keeping in my blog[0] as well, but seeing projects like yours motivates to push harder for bigger projects.
I wish you luck on keeping your pace as well!
[0] https://cgreinhold.dev/
[+] [-] Fumtumi|5 years ago|reply
One credit card fraud going through my system and i might in a big dept if i did this under a company format which doesn't protect me from personal liability.
While i like the idea very much of getting exercise in this way, i'm wondering what the main motivation is?
I would like to earn money through my own company but only with my product i like and find 'worthy'. Trying out small concepts over and over again, might not bring any fruit in finding the thing you are passionate about and then the question arrives if it wouldn't be much more beneficial to optimize your own career instead.
[+] [-] freehunter|5 years ago|reply
I've considered many ideas like that One Item Shop and turned away from them because I wasn't sure how to keep people from listing and selling things that will get me sued out of business or thrown in jail. And at £1.63 in revenue, I'm not hiring a lawyer.
[+] [-] delusional|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dspillett|5 years ago|reply
I doubt that'll be an issue for some time, there are so many startups out there either trying to be the next big one or specifically to address the needs of a niche set of users.
Once the project hits a certain level of public awareness new social projects will be contacting the author to ask to be included, there will be no "looking for them" involved (though perhaps some due diligence checking to make sure the platform isn't in some way a project they'd rather not be associated with).
[+] [-] jcun4128|5 years ago|reply
I think that would be great to make some project that has returns even a seemingly low sum of $200/mo. That's like a fifth of what I need to live a month, not bad.
Facebook ads for market interest check is an interesting thought albeit maybe expenisve.
edit: the other thing stories like these(pertaining to EarlyName) seem to gloss over is the legal aspect. It is easy to throw up a payment form but who is it paid to and say you're sued for whatever reason... does the few hundred a month justify an LLC sort of thing. That's the part that sucks/part of a business I guess. Some options like fastpring I think. Maybe general ToS/Privacy is enough
It is funny it's like a "solve that problem when you actually have it" sort of scenario. But I do wonder about creating some general LLC that can be an umbrella to random micro saas projects.
[+] [-] pastorhudson|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pjettter|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] corobo|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mettamage|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AussieWog93|5 years ago|reply
On the other hand, though, your sites look more like Craigslist ads than actual eCommerce sites. The font choice is ugly, and the lack of things like logos, contact/about pages don't exactly fill the user with trust.
If you polished it up a bit, I think you could have a real winner on your hands.
[+] [-] abdabab|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] batt4good|5 years ago|reply